Plot Overview

Notes

Monster of the Week

M'Fashnick: The demon that appeared at the bank when Buffy was attempting to get her loan was a demon known by reputation as a mercenary demon that performs acts of slaughter and mayhem for the highest bidder. In this case, the highest bidder was an ominous group of social misfits known as the Trio.

Body Count

#

Whom

By Whom

How

Where

1

M'Fashnick

Buffy

Beaten With a Pipe

Buffy's Basement

Arc Advancement

Happenings

Characters

Giles: Giles returns to Sunnydale after being in England for a couple days.

Referbacks

Superstar: Jonathan offers to make the M'Fashnick demon look "super cool" in comparisson to the other demons. This is a reference to when he changed reality in season four to give him wealth, popularity and charm.

I Was Made to Love You: Warren offers to get the M'Fashnick demon a girlfriend, but he's shot down when Andrew explains that the girlfriend would be robotic. Warren created a robotic girlfriend in season five and is also responsible for the Buffy robot.

The Prom: Andrew claims to be the brother of Tucker Wells, the same person who unleashed demon dogs on the prom.

Trivia

The Show

Angel Tie-In: Although it isn't a direct reference to Angel, Anya's idea to start charging for saving lives is nearly the same as Cordelia's idea to start a private investigation service in season one of the spinoff.

First Appearance: Although Warren and Jonathan have appeared in past episodes, the trio appears for the first time as a group in this episode.

Behind the Scenes

Writer Follies: Jane Espenson commented once that co-writing this episode was a bad idea because she and Douglas Petrie didn't actually co-write the episode. Instead, they rewrote each other's scripts as opposed to the usual method of dividing the episode up.

The Fourth Beatle: Tucker Wells was originally meant to be the leader of the trio, but producers couldn't cast Brad Kane due to scheduling conflicts. While recasting the role, they were so impressed by Tom Lenk that they changed the role to Tucker's brother so Warren could have the leadership role.

Reunion?: Although Angel is mentioned at the end of this episode and is alerted to Buffy's revival during Carpe Noctem from his series, their reunion is never shown on screen due to bad blood between WB and UPN over the series moving networks.

Allusions and References

Spider-Man: Spider-Man is a Marvel Comics superhero created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and is one of the most popular and well known superheroes ever to exist. In the comic, Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider which gave him heightened strength, agility and a sense to tell him when he's in danger. He later evolved slightly to have organic webshooters. In the episode, Xander quotes a lyric from the Spider-Man cartoon series after Dawn and Anya have an argument as to whether or not he makes people pay for saving them.

Xander: Action is his reward.

Memorable Moments

Quotes

Andrew: We could stay up all night if we wanted.Warren: Woah there, don't get all crazy on us Andrew.Andrew: I was only saying.